Monday, 3 October 2016

Time for the tough choices.

You can relax, this is not another episode of "Live or Die" but instead an update on the last problem areas in the rockery. I have been looking at this yucca purpurea since spring. It has been leaning more and more since being plants.

It now almost perfectly mirrors the yucca rostrata and with winter around the corner it was decision time. I thought about moving it, replanting it there and cutting the main plant off. In the end I went with the final option and top cut it.

Doesn't look as good at the moment, but they seem to grow quickly for me, so in a year or so the two pups will be nice and big. The main trunk will be dried for a few days then potted up.

We have had such mild winters since these have been planted they haven't really been tested. The top should root quickly and then can be planted somewhere to go wild. Has anyone seen a really big clump of these?

Anyway the real benefit of cutting the main stem is that I can now use a simple cloche to cover that corner this winter.

It hasn't been covered before, but the aloe polyphylla is just too nice now and I should be able to rig the cloche into an L shape so it covers the aloe, the yuccas and the agave parryi. I'll probably set it up as a test and then take it down until we have cold or snow forecast, hopefully not for a long time yet.